skateboarding. art. music. counter culture.

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Cover artwork by Karim Marquez

WHAT’S INSIDE

Letter from the Editor

Karim Marquez

Where did “my skateboarding” go?

Josh Yavneh

Falcon Bowse

Happy Trails

Banco Tendencies

Positive Hype

Created by Chris Miller

Instagram: @digimil

email: positiveinstincts@yahoo.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/positiveinstincts1

It’s been a busy summer for Positive Instincts. Readership has more than doubled since the first issue in June and I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to check out my “passion project.” The support from everyone is encouraging, and makes the time spent doing this worthwhile. I am proud to showcase the great people and positivity I have come across while doing this magazine.

Since I am doing this by myself, I have decided to change the frequency of publication to a bi-monthly basis. This will allow me peace of mind to work equally on all my projects. If any of you reading this wish to contribute anything to the magazine I welcome all submissions.

Please email all submissions to positiveinstincts@yahoo.com.

As always, thank you for checking out Positive Instincts. I hope you enjoy what follows, and I look forward to bringing you more great content in the issues to come.

Sincerely,

Karim Marquez

37yrs oldFrom: Caracas, VenezuelaCurrent location: Bushwick

I got connected with the skateboarding scene when I was 12 or 13 years old. It was more big in the United States but it was pretty popular in South America. The thing is I grew up with that and I was drawing, and painting. Kids would ask me to draw on their boards. It was pretty rough down there, we didn’t have parks or anything and there was the skateboarding store. It was more expensive than in the states though. Skateboarding was a luxury.

I was connected with the rock scene, and the underground. You know, outsider kids. But it’s funny, at the same time, I don’t know if you remember the

bikes, BMX was popular…

Yeah Matt Hoffman, that whole 90’s era. The first X-games.

Right, and then one day I saw the brand Santa Cruz with their graphics. They were very pop-ular. It always stuck in my mind and I watched it grow and grow. I see now guys are turning 40 and making a career out of it.

Oh totally. A lot of skaters actually create art as well: Ed Templeton, Russ Pope, Mark Gonzales. Were those some of early influences on your work?

Well, I’m coming from a very abstract, geometric kind of patterns like…with the skate-boards; it’s more connected with the culture. The graphics,

you know, it’s cool that people want to destroy them. Each scratch it tells a story about how the board was used and destroyed...I like that. I take the pieces and make them a collage of the boards, a collage of the different stories. You can see each story like in the one piece I have called “Memory of Generation X.”

Do the graphics that are already on the board in-fluence how you go about creating the piece? How you organize them or what you see when you look at them?

Yeah kind of, the colors, the graphics, the stickers. You can see the different designs, some are propaganda-like and some are tattoo influenced, or like this Neckface graphic [Karim points to one of the boards]. If you

(From left to right) A collection of board designs made by Karim Marquez.

(Below) Karim’s raw materials for making his artwork. Each piece he creates is a testament to skateboard history, each graphic and scratch tells a story of what has helped shaped where skateboarding is today.

know about skateboards, you will recognize them in my work and you know. You can really read into the piece.

Yeah I know what you mean, I saw the Kerry Getz board you have, he was one of my favorite skaters growing up. I can read the marks like you say, I can tell which marks are from wheelbite or a noseslide, etc. The scratches are kind of like a skater’s brushstrokes and the board is our canvas. People used to ask me why I would get a board with a cool graphic on it if I’m just going to destroy it anyway.

Yeah and that’s the thing. That’s your identity. You are going to break something, but you are going to take a risk and make your own mark.

Yeah, with skating, with surfing, with art you are always taking a risk. Things might not work out but you just have to go for it. At what point did you want to make art your life’s work, your career?

Well, all my life. When I thought about what I wanted to do as a grown man I preferred to do what is easy for me, which is drawing and painting. I never thought it was hard; I just loved to do it. I was just having fun.

If you could sum up the identity and the meaning of your work what would you say?

I work for the next generation. I want to preserve the culture. People say art is a need. What I do is I combine preserving what was and create something for the kids, for the future. I am really into archae-ology. Art is a language and with my art I am creating a language to communicate with the future generations.

How long have you been making art and when did you first start creating pieces with skateboards?

Maybe about 17 years total making art, about 10 years with the skateboards now. They come together really in the moment when I am in the zone. I can see it in my head. I work the pieces together until I finally see it complete and then I create the piece. Then it’s done.

Do you have any any shout outs or thank you’s?

Thank you to Bushwick and the Brooklyn area. KCDC for helping supply me with broken decks and all the kids who are just out there doing it.

Look for more Q&A with Karim next month as we put together the Positive Instincts web site!

Bob Dylan used to sing that the times…they are a’ changing. Today, change is everywhere you look. No matter what perspective you have on life, it’s clear that the world is in flux. Civil wars in the Middle East, American values and the laws we live by are in the news daily, climate change on a global scale…the list goes on and on. Skateboarding isn’t immune to the change either. Throughout skateboard history fads, fashion, and even companies themselves have come and go. The Pretty Sweet video by Girl & Chocolate Skateboards does a great job of illustrating each era of skateboarding via a slow motion mash-up of skaters, dressed up to reflect each era, grinding down a very healthy-sized handrail in Stevie Perez’s intro. In this day in age, as a member of the late 90’s/early 2000’s era of skateboarders, I find myself asking “where did my skateboarding go?”

On Go Skateboarding Day this year I noticed something that bothered me. NikeSB sponsored Nwwew York City festivities and every location was a skatepark. I enjoy the free, public parks as much

as every other skater, but this is New York City! The whole place is a skatepark, why not pick at least one street spot? On the day of the event I headed down to

L.E.S. Coleman Skatepark to check out the event and get some skating in. At this point I noticed something odd, the NYPD had barricades set up around the park...a park that is already fenced in. I’m not familiar with police proce-dures but I assume the set up was in case of a need for

crowd control, which I can understand. It got so crowded that trying to skate the park stopped being fun. Having my fill of the event and wanting to just skate, I took off to enjoy cruising through the city and hitting a couple street spots along the way. That being said, the event was fun, and I appreciate the companies that put it together, it just wasn’t my scene.

Not too long after in about mid-to-late July, I saw the NYPD and the city interact with skateboarding again. This time they were down at the BQE spot with construction crews tearing down the newest DIY obstacles that had been set up. It was a huge bummer for a lot of NY skateboarders and it got me thinking. With the Brooklyn Banks off limits for the foreseeable future, I see more and more parks popping up contrasting with a shrinkage in skateable street spots. The skateboard-ing I grew up with is chang-ing, and there are people on both sides of the argument. Admittedly, I am anti-big corporations in skateboard-ing. When I first started skating, Kastel was just about to go under. CCS

Where did “MY” skateboarding go?

a lot of views. The consen-sus seems to be that the popularity is good for skateboarding, and that while there are some bad eggs, the heart and soul of skateboarding will continue to endure and live on past what’s hot right now.

The next 5 to 10 years in skateboarding will be very interesting to watch. The big companies have set-tled in, and contests like Street League keep skate-boarding relevant under the mainstream spotlight. What companies and personas will outlast the others and lead skateboarding into the unknown that the future holds? Outside of our little skateboarding microcosm the world will continue to change and face challenges as well.

Adaptation is the name of the game my friends, and while

carried Destructo, Grind King, Hook-ups, Arcade, Maple, and countless other brands. It was a paperback book sized catalog that was mostly skateboard decks, parts, and shoes, with a small selection of soft goods like t-shirts and Osiris’ O.D.S. system pants for those of you who remember Peter Smolik. I watched Converse drop their whole team and their skateboarding division, only to return years later when the money was back in skateboarding. Along with the changes in popularity and economic stability is the progression of skateboarding itself. The current level of skateboarding was something that was only possible in the wildest dreams of generations that came before Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game. With a lot of people I talk to, I hear

we all must participate, it’s always fascinating to take a step back and admire the fallout. The world seems to roll with the punches, and so will skateboarding. As skateboarders though it is important to remember, we all play a part in skateboard-ing’s future direction. While skaters may not get the same rebellious and negative connotations as they did in the past, people’s attention span is ever shortening. In ten years it may be as uncool to skate as it was in the early 90’s. Don’t forget where you came from, it’s just as important as where you are going. Instead of asking where “my” skateboarding has gone, try to focus on where it’s going.

JOSH YAVNEH

Sometimes in life, chance brings people together that would not otherwise have met. Call it destiny, luck, or happenstance...in this life I have been fortunate to meet a large amount of amazing people in the most unorthodox of ways. Josh Yavneh happens to be one such individual. On a random ride home on the LIRR we happened to strike up a conversation about music, the New York scene, and life.

Definitely not the typical ride on public transportation. Had it been a later hour, we could have been two random intoxicated guys on the drunk train home. I would say luckily, but it’s recently come to my attention that luck is a bad word to use. It’s a crutch used when people can’t find any other reason to describe the situation, but that’s just what life is. Things happen, people meet, and relationships become established. Josh invited me over for Shabbat dinner one Friday evening and welcomed me into his home to do this interview. I hope you enjoy getting to know Josh as much as I have. Check out his music and be on the look out for much more from this Queens local.

reverbnation.com/joshyavneh

My name is Josh Yavneh. I’m a singer-songwriter from Queens, NY. I’m 29 years old.

How long have you been playing music?

I’ve been playing bass and guitar since high school. I was playing in bands and in 2005 I started doing my own thing.

Cool. So you grew up here, what was that like getting started in one of the biggest cities in the world? Was it intimidating trying to get into this scene?

It was more intimidating when I was younger, but when I started doing my own thing it wasn’t so much intimidating as it was frustrating. People come to NY to or California to make it, or they try to, so I always figured I had an advantage but obviously it’s very competitive. I’ve played for a couple hundred people and a couple of people in the same week. You know, it’s very inconsistent. It’s hard to get out there because people always say oh “great set, I love your stuff,” but you’re still playing the same little clubs every week trying to advance.

That being said, a little something I like to ask everyone I talk to is: So why not go somewhere else, why stay here? Why be in this area doing what you are doing?

Well I still think that it’s potentially a great place to break through. I just started a label so, I want to give it a shot here. I’m definitely looking to tour soon though because I’ve only played east coast venues. I want to branch out to a degree but I’m more focused on trying to break here first. Pretty soon I think I’m going to travel on my own. I was always trying to get a deal going but things fizzled. Now, I’m taking the reins on my own with the label and whatever to try to break out

elsewhere or at least try to.

So what is a typical show like for you now and what are you working on this year?

Well, I haven’t been playing shows a lot because I’ve been working on records. I have two EP’s that are coming out. One is a revamped version of a couple tracks and masters that came out a few years ago. Once the two EP’s are done I am going to play a bunch of shows, and then a little bit after that my first full length is going to come out. You know, just play and try to be heard by as many people as possible.

For those people who haven’t heard your music, what is the essence of your sound, what do you sing about, and what are you trying to convey with your music?

I mean, most of the time, some of it is songwriting…whatever works but sometimes its just following what you

want to do and not letting anything get you down. Persevering, overcoming things that get in your way and not getting stuck in a rut…you know, and some of your typi-cal break up-y songs among other things I happened to be thinking of at the moment.

Right. So who are your influences growing up and who has helped you most along the way?

Unfortunately, at this point with the exception of engineers helping me record it’s pretty much been my own thing. That’s why I’m hoping doing the label will help me push further. As far as influences go, I’ve loved music ever since I was a kid. I come from a very musical family on my dad’s side but uh, I love Dylan…Bob Dylan and Neil Young are my two biggest influences by far. A lot of blues stuff, Howlin’ Wolf, you know a lot of the old stuff like Robert Johnson, Creedence is a big one for me. I also love R.E.M. and My Morning Jacket, a lot of different stuff. Music has always been a very big important thing in my life. I’m self taught. I heard Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues I thought to myself I don’t know if I can do this but I damn sure want to try and see if I can do it.

Awesome man. Well we at Positive Instincts wish you the best of luck. Where can people find you and hear your music?

Rumblerecords.co is the label’s website. Facebook pages you know, and You-Tube…just Google me [laughs].

Nice. Any thank you’s or shout outs you want to do?

Thanks everybody.

One in a great while, people come through with an idea so great that they become instant classics. Brian Downey’s Falcon Bowse is one of those ideas. Growing up skating in South Florida with Brian I knew he was destined for big things. While everyone was throwing the staple tricks down the local proving grounds, Brian was nollie late-flipping with style well beyond his years. Flash forward a few years and a few thousand miles between our hometown, Brian is reprising your old t-shirts into classic headpieces for you to treasure all over again.

I caught up with Brian at the opening of his new pop-up project located at 110 Meserole Ave in Green Point, Brooklyn. The gallery/shop is open through the end of August so make sure to get in there and show some love for one of skateboarding’s greatest underground treasures and his passion project. If you don’t live in the Brooklyn area and still want to support the project visit his kickstarter by clicking the link below. Each pledge amount gets you a sweet Falcon Bowse reward courtesy of the man himself: Mr. Brian Downey!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1143580172/the-amazing-falcon-bowse-t-shirt-transformation-pr-0

So Brian, how did you get started with this project?

Well, I don’t know, this project just kind of evolved from me just wanting to start a company in skateboarding to kind of highlight my favorite brands, or my associating brands and showcase them in a way that is sustainable that is community based. Bringing all of us as skateboarders and creative individuals together. So when I started Falcon Bowse, I wanted to make five panels and I kind of looked into that. The only thing that was available were factories offering minimum orders of 500 or more…or even a thousand. To even afford that, I would have to go overseas and that was one thing I was extremely against. Not to mention I was like what am I going to do with a thousand hats, at the time.

So, I just wanted to start small and make five-or-ten five panels for my friends and myself. There was really no other way to do that then to just figure out how to make them myself. So I figured it out, I made my pattern and experimented with materials. Through trying different materi-als I finally tried a shirt because it already had screen-printed graphics on it, and it worked. I thought it was pretty sick because everyone has shirts they hold onto, especially skateboarders who grew up identifying and idolizing a brand or whatever. You know, you would see The End and would be like “that’s my shit!” And now we are old ass skateboarders and our wives or girlfriends are wondering why we are hanging on to these little kids shirts, but they are important to us. So this is a way to, through the kickstarter and the tshirt transformation program, rebirth those important things in our lives into a wearable, everyday-useable piece of your life again.

Right I call it “recycled relevance.” You’re taking things that were awesome to us growing up and you

know, showing it to the kids nowadays. I showed someone Chris Senn’s old video parts and they were blown away by how fast he skated. To be able to impress a kid from today’s skateboarding with something from the past is pretty cool. What was the learning curve to get the company up and running and make the idea a reality?

Well, I mean the work to get the Kickstarter up and running, I was really busy working on another project, but altogether it took about 9 months. But, going back to what you were saying about relevance of old school skating going full circle into contemporary skating… I feel like in skateboarding, and humanity in general, we have kind of hit a point where we are realizing we should go to a farmer’s market or grow our own food, instead of going to Wal-Mart like, everyone is becoming a little more progressive, and sustainable, and creative in the way they do things. I feel like that’s really relevant in skateboarding right now because it happened in the 90’s and it’s going full circle. There was the transition from the 80’s vert skating into pro’s start-ing their own companies for street skat-ing as it was emerging and it got out of control. It’s still out of control with all the contests that are going on and giant corporate sponsors. But I feel like being here in New York City working at the gallery, working with theories of at-lantis and directly with brands that are up and coming, underground, skater-owned DIY brands that are really taking a foothold in today’s skating economy. And so, the project with Falcon Bowse is just to kind of like collectively do something to support the family, the underground revival. Through Kickstarter I probably have reached the most audience so I thought this was the best way to kind of share everything.

I’ve spoken with Josh Stewart a

couple times through Facebook. He’s a very positive dude and I know he’s been holding it down on the east coast for a long time. What was it that made you pick up from San Francisco and come out here?

Well I mean, coming from growing up in Florida with you, I think we were extremely privileged. There are not many places where crews that have a handful of skaters become top pro skaters. Florida had that. We were lucky to grow up with Ben Gore, Brad Cromer, Brian Delatorre, Sean Conover, Manny and Dave would come down all the time, like we had a really awesome thing going there. It’s just crazy to see like Joey Ragali, even the younger kids still are now like, how did that happen? Our crew is the shit

[laughs]. I don’t know, for me, my family was moving to North Carolina and I just didn’t think there were any skate spots or skateboarders in North Carolina so I moved to California because I saw Seasons 2 and I was like “That’s where I have to go.” I’ve been there since, but I’ve been coming to New York every summer just about and it’s relative. New York skating is just fucking amazing. It has a lot history and roots to the underground movement. I don’t know, I’ve been in SF about 7 years and I’m thinking about coming to New York and setting up shop or maybe going to Detroit, I have no idea. But I love it here.

I think growing up we always looked towards you and like your late-flips as very progressive skating. We just didn’t see that, it was so different. No one was doing it and then you see it progress with like Alex

Olson who….

[Tess Barber walks up and asks if the phone I’m using to record the interview with was hers. I decided to ask her some questions too]

What do you think about Falcon Bowse?

I think it’s the best thing ever. Best dude. Best idea. And Rachel Yaeger who owns this space is the best fucking chick in the world and we need to all thank her for letting us use it.

So, Rachel is the one that helped this space to exist? How did everyone meet and get together on this project?

So, Brian and Joel (Meinholz) knew each other from Florida and Brian was here walking back to John’s house. We were on our way back to grab our stuff before heading to North Carolina and they saw each other right outside here and met Rachel. Rachel had mentioned she just leased the space and Rachel basically gifted Brian the space to use. So, we were in shock on our way to North Carolina. That was a nice 12-hour drive and then when we got back we just started setting up. Everyone had just met that same day.

Nice. That’s what I love about skateboarding is that no matter where you go in the world, you see someone else on a skateboard and you guys automatically can connect and you look out for each other.

Yeah it was amazing, but that’s his luck. I don’t even want to say luck though.

It’s not even luck because he puts so much dedication into his work. Brian, how much love, dedication, and work have you put into this what’s the balance?

I don’t know, I mean… like Joel, who helped me set this up, He told me to stop talking about luck because I do believe it’s an element of luck but uh…man, I gotta fucking pee…

Happy TrailsWith the end of summer approaching and fall quickly gaining on us it’s time to squeeze out every last drop of awesome weather before winter makes things difficult.

Positive Instincts will be doing a few trips this fall. Next month we will be heading to Philly with the Banco Tendencies crew. After that the next stop is a trip to Burlington, Vermont to visit our friends at Burton Snowboards. I’ll be doing a whole feature on the area showing you the best of the food, the people, and the skating that there is up along with a bunch of other stuff planned for the next issue.

If anyone is interested in going to check it out there are still spots in the SUV available for a one weekend trip leaving Friday and coming back Sunday so shoot me an email.

Positiveinstincts@yahoo.com

Facebook.com/bancotendencies

Subscribe to banco tendencies and bancorecords on YouTube

Soundcloud.com/dapperquiet

Soundcloud.com/dapperfishhooks

Soundcloud.com/kingnevsupreme

Banco Tendencies is a local New York upstart that has its feet firmly planted on the ground but their eyes are directed upward towards the stars. Music, skateboarding, clothing, creatively this group has it all.

They may be young but what they may lack in age they more than make up for with their drive and ambition. After skating and chilling with these dudes I felt about 10 years younger myself. They have a raw energy that is as electric as New York City itself.

In the next issue, we will be going on a little road trip with the crew doing a full feature on each facet of the Banco brand. so make sure to pick up the September/October issue to meet each member of the Banco organization. Each member is distinctly unique but when they come together...well you’ll just have to wait and see in the next issue! Until then check out the links above for more info.

http://www.reverbnation.com/versewonofficial

Twitter: @versewon Instagram: @versewon

Versewon, defined as anything but another rapper, has arrived on the Las Vegas hip-hop scene full force. The PA grown/Huntsville, AL honed emcee’s balanced approach to song writing offers both thought provoking lyricism and creative intuition (he knows what his audience wants). With his background in music composition and theatrical scoring, musically the 28 year old artist’s potential seems limitless. Also highly regarded as a talented vocalist, his finished products are usually excitingly unpredictable but diversely appropriate for their timing...His first video release “Say U Will” managed to reach over 1,000 views in just 3 days with out absolutely any prerelease promotion via social networking/local advertisement or any buzz that represented him as an artist. His response simply, “I did this for you.”

The Edge Collective is a creative digital agency made up of a net-work of award winning social media innovators, strategists and creative entrepreneurs who work diligently to create community and ROI driven campaigns forup and coming brands out in the market today.

Head over to their website and see what they are all about.

http://edge-collective.com

POSITIVE HYPEAs of press time, there are only two more house parties scheduled at the House of Vans, but any New York local nows that doesn’t mean the end of the fun at this awesome Brooklyn warehouse.

Vans continously brings in great bands, artists and other events like their open skate nights to keep the local populace entertained. If you haven’t had a chance to get down to one of their events go RSVP and send summer off with a bang. Even if it’s too late for you this summer, the fall and winter promise more great things to come.

Positive Instincts would like to send over a big thank you to Vans for doing all that you do. It is very much appreciated.

“Head to Brooklyn to get your culture fix (at the DUMBO Arts Festival)” – Time Out New York

Check out Chizuco Sophia Yu from our June issue at the DUMBO arts festival this year!

The DUMBO Arts Festival attracts 200,000 visitors over 3 days with the participation of over 500 artists from a variety of disciplines, 100 studios, 50 galleries and stages and 100 programming partners. This year, the Festival will take place on Friday, September 27th, Saturday, September 28th and Sunday, Sep-tember 29th. The official Festival hours are Friday 6pm to 9pm, Saturday noon to 9pm, Sunday noon to 6pm.Outdoor projections on view through midnight all three nights.

http://dumboartsfestival.com